The memory of her twisted features as she recounted the dirtiness of his crimes against her fuels me, inspiring me to grip his shirt with one hand as I punch him with the other. A few blows to his chest cause him to recoil and clutch the area I assaulted. Panting, he bows forward and grits his teeth, keeping his wild eyes on me.
I drift back and give him space to return. Sure, I nearly lost my control, but I want him to see how much I’m treating this as a game of my own making. His life is in my hands—and I’ll snuff it out whenever I see fit.
“She’ll betray you,” he spits while stumbling forward. “Just like she did to me. She’ll tease you and use you. And then she’ll throw you away!”
We lock arms, and I struggle with the position as he leans his weight on me. He’s a bigger man, arguably stronger by a hair, but I can handle him just fine. That’s what I keep telling myself as I free my right arm and shove my elbow into his jugular, a sickening gasp causing him to flail. He releases a wild haymaker on me while I try to block his blows, backing up until my shoulders hit the banister of the stairs.
“She’ll never be yours again,” I manage to growl while lodging my knee into his stomach.
He bows forward with pain but persists in his attack, locking his arm around my neck while flipping me around. He applies his weight again to keep me from escaping.
“That’s where you’re wrong, boy,” he wheezes in my ear while tightening his arm around my neck. My face balloons as I choke, scratching uselessly at his arm in an attempt to loosen his grip. “It’s you who won’t ever see her again once I put you to sleep. You’ll be with your father. Don’t worry. It doesn’t hurt once it’s over…”
My eyes swell as blood thunders through my ears. I’m staring up at the stairs, instinctively searching for the room where I once took care of Alex, where I helped her recover from the initial shock of Lev’s death. Just recalling how she trusted me then imbues me with strength, inspiring me to shove against the wall.
I knock Amos back and stomp on his toes, his grip seeming to only tighten with the pain. With barely any oxygen in my system feeding my brain, I shove my elbows into his ribs, stabbing at him until I hear a disgusting crunch that forces him to release me. When I flip around, my head spins with the motion, vertigo seizing me as I stumble forward.
My throat is scratchy and dry, but I ignore the discomfort as I mount Amos and wrap my hands around his thick neck. His face blooms red with hatred as he struggles to curse at me, his pudgy fingers wrapping around my wrists to try to get me off him. But I broke his ribs and I’ve got him pinned. He’s not going anywhere until he stops breathing.
Planting my knee into his solar plexus forces the rest of the air from his body, causing his eyes to widen as I apply all my weight to his throat. His eyes bulge the longer I hold him there, feet kicking behind me and scrambling for purchase on the tile. The heels of his dress shoes clap and scuff the floor while he struggles to suck air into his lungs, fingers losing strength as I count the seconds to his inevitable death.
“Never again,” I state hoarsely as his eyelids flutter. “You’ll never touch her ever again.”
His lips turn blue while his mouth flaps open, teeth clashing together viciously while he chokes. The sound of him dying brings a sense of peace that I can’t deny, a soothing symphony of sputters and gurgles that inspires me to close my eyes. When he stops kicking and struggling, I keep the pressure on his throat, unwilling to stop a moment shy of death.
It’s not until the door swings open behind me that I realize I’ve been clutching his throat for longer than necessary. I stand up to get a good view of the lifeless corpse at my feet, the bulging eyes and swollen tongue resting between porcelain white teeth. A few steps take me toward the mirror, where I stare into the limitless abyss expanding behind me.
Alex steps into the foyer and walks purposefully toward me, her hair flowing behind her like a cape. She steps over Amos’s dead body and then spins me around, standing on her toes to kiss me. I wrap my arms around her waist as she slackens in my embrace, whimpering and shuddering like she almost lost me.
And she almost did lose me. That fight took more out of me than I thought it would, my pride taking the helm stronger than intended.
“You did it,” she whispers when she releases my lips. “Now I’m in charge like my mother wanted.”
I smile down at her. “It was for you, sugar.”
“Thank you, Soren.”
Her eyes brim with tears as she stands on her toes again and presses her quivering lips to my mouth. God, let this never end. Let me keep claiming her by doing things that please her. I don’t ever want the threat of being without her again.